Statistics show each second person abroad aged up to 39 years

Chisinau, 4 August /MOLDPRES/- About 32.7 percent of the 283 thousand people declared abroad by family members were aged 20-29 years, and another 27.2 percent - aged 30-39 years, according to the Population and Housing Census data, made in 2014, released by the National Statistics Bureau.

About 79 percent of people left abroad are from villages. The statisticians believe that as compared to 2004 there is an increase in the share of people under the working age and over the working age who are abroad, which confirms the trend of reuniting migrant families.

Statistics also show that in 24 districts of Moldova the proportion of persons who went abroad in the total population of the district exceeds 10%. The highest share was recorded in Cimislia and Basarabeasca districts - 15.9 and 15.1 percent, and the lowest in the municipalities of Chisinau and Balti with 4.7 and 4.4 percent, respectively.

At least 81.4 per cent of Moldovans who are abroad left the country for working, about 5 per cent left for studies, and 12.2 per cent – family reasons. Data show that Moldovans working in Russia are usually staying there for less than a year.

The official statistics confirm a report by the Migration and Asylum Bureau, which states that in 2016, the largest share among those who left the country had the population up to 40 years (64 percent), their number increasing by 21% compared to 2015. The estimated number of Moldovan citizens living abroad, according to the diplomatic and consular missions of the Republic of Moldova, amounts to over 800 thousand.

According to a study by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies of Italy about the Moldovan community, in early 2017 there were 135,661 Moldovans in the country with an average age of 35 years. The Italian Ministry explains the downard trend since 2006, when it reached the maximum of 142 thousand, a new entry in Italy of Moldovan citizens through "the growing number of Moldovans who acquired Italian citizenship in recent years" or married. According to the same report by the Bureau of Migration and Asylum, most Moldovans, about 478 thousand worked in 2015 in the Russian Federation, in other countries being from a few hundred to up to two thousand Moldovan citizens.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcază)